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The Spanish of the Mayor of Nueva York | ||
Tags: Political Leaders | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5262 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 1 of 10 31 August 2011 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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The recent Hurricane Irene event on the east coast of the US brought out politicians galore who were afraid of looking like George W Bush and Ray Nagin during Katrina. As the mayor of New York City, Mayor Bloomberg gave numerous press conferences, and announcements- in English and "Spanish". Usually the national news media would cut away after 20 or 30 seconds of him "speaking" "Spanish" with a heavy American accent, but it was enough for a lot of people to notice that, well, the billionaire obviously hasn't been shadowing Pimsleur or Assimil. I chuckled myself. Now the NY Times has picked up on it: El Bloombito in a funny article about the mayor's attempts at speaking Spanish. Here's a sample: Bloomberg Spanish
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| dleewo Groupie United States Joined 5818 days ago 95 posts - 131 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin | Message 2 of 10 31 August 2011 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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He seems to be reading. Does anyone know if he actually speaks Spanish?
To be honest, if he does speak Spanish, even it with an American accent, I would be impressed. Derek 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 10 31 August 2011 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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From the video I thought he obviously doesn't speak any Spanish, but according to the reporter quoted in the Times article he knows a little. Well, I give him an A for effort. It's probably not so easy to find time to study when you run a large company and are the mayor of New York. Edited by newyorkeric on 31 August 2011 at 3:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5130 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 4 of 10 31 August 2011 at 4:49pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Not really a Bloomberg fan, but at least he tried to accommodate the Spanish-speaking population. What harm is there in that? I suppose he could have found a more competent speaker, but really, what good does making fun of his Spanish accomplish?
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| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5262 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 5 of 10 31 August 2011 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I just thought it was funny when I read the NYT article this morning. It put me in mind of watching former Florida Governor Jeb Bush do bilingual English/Spanish hurricane announcements. Governor Bush is fluent in Spanish. Obviously, and by his own admission, Mayor Bloomberg is not. It seemed to me that he was trying to project an uber-confident image. Was Bloomberg's purpose to convey information or to make a political statement by trying to speak Spanish? A crisis is always an oportunity. When a politician has a captive audience of millions glued to his announcements it is an opportunity to showcase.
If Mayor Bloomberg were really trying to accommodate the rather large Spanish-speaking population of New York with (at the time) vital information regarding safety, he could have found someone else to read the announcements more effectively. Showing you can speak a language is one thing, and communicating possibly vital, possibly life-saving, information is another. In a situation that calls for information to be shared clearly and concisely to convey safety information, it is not the time to practice your Spanish, especially in a city like New York where I'm sure there are many fluent bilingual speakers on his staff. This has been a lesson to me as well and I will steer clear of humorous posts in the future as it often just does not go over well. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| kmart Senior Member Australia Joined 6124 days ago 194 posts - 400 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 6 of 10 01 September 2011 at 1:35am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Meh, the guy was grandstanding - why not just get a competent Spanish speaker to deliver the message - and if she was hot as well, they'd have made sure of getting a huge audience !
Sure I respect people who make the effort to learn another language and wouldn't normally ridicule them, but he put himself out there - "Look at me! Look at me! I speak Spanish!" And @ElBloombito is really funny - shoe on the other foot... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5191 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 7 of 10 01 September 2011 at 8:30am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I don't think he is reading. If he were, surely there is at least one member of his administration who could have written in correct Spanish for him to read aloud. Even his Spanish speaking constituents say that what he is doing is unhelpful because he is using what probably amounts to a few lessons of Rosetta Stone coupled with filling the remaining gaps with English words. This is one of those times when it would be smart to have an interpreter at his side to handle the Spanish part. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tritone Senior Member United States reflectionsinpo Joined 6120 days ago 246 posts - 385 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, French | Message 8 of 10 02 September 2011 at 9:45am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I notice in the comments to all the youtube videos I've seen, that the native Spanish speakers outside the U.S are the most forgiving, with some even confused as to why people are making fun of his thickly accented but yet totally understandable Spanish.
Examples: Mexico:
Spain:
Chile:
Edited by tritone on 02 September 2011 at 10:01am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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